My summer and early fall has been a time of crazy-work loads and awesome rewards.  I have had much to be thankful for but also have had much that I wish hadn't happened.

There is some exciting news I will share with you in the next few weeks (actually, there are several things) but you will note many changes around here with the launch of some new services from my day job.  I can't believe we are getting to this level this quickly.  Where do I start?

• First, we have a new employee.  Her name is Jen and she rocks this world. She also has some of the best photographs of Serendipity The Pug.  She has been working hard for us to help get out schedules sorted out so that we don't burn up.
• Bait Car (one of our sites) is getting a revamp in the next few months with some new videos coming on line in the near future.  So, check it out when those come on line.
• Left Right Minds should have our new site coming out in the next little while.  We have some great writers lined up to help us out to get some of the content prepped.  We've been so busy building other people's web sites we suffer from not having enough time to do our own.  It is a problem that I love to have but it embarrassing as well.  But, I have faith we've conquered this issue now.
• We've had two major launches in the last week.  If you are a car dealer, check out Dealer Exchange, one of our clients who is trying to change the face of dealership car exchanges.  You will need to be a dealer to sign up for the service but it is a very cool concept and we've worked many months to get it going.

Now, for the bad news.  In the last month, there have been several deaths of people I know.  All were before their time and should not have left the world - but what can one do.  It happens.  It is a part of the world and life.  I wish I had some profound words to speak on this subject but I don't.  I am a little numb from the whole experiences as I wasn't prepared.  But, who is.  My heart goes out to them and everyone else who knew them.

There is more to come but I will get to that in the next few days - I promise.  More blogging and glimpses into the world of Shane to come.

Tags: leftrightminds, work, serendipitythepug

I did another presentation over at West Coast Community Enterprises yesterday and had a blast. There wasn't as much time as usual, so, I had to rip through some of the material and gave out choice as to what nerdy stuff they wanted me to cover. Here are the presentations I did (zip file), so, if you want to check them out, feel free to download them.

For those of you who know me best, I love poetry.  I love performance poetry, quiet poetry, words that fill in the blank spaces of an average page.  Usually, this kind of literature gives me great pleasure, but today, it reminds me of someone I admired.  I received this a little while ago:

Hi all:

I just wanted to let those of you who knew T Paul Ste Marie  -  he passed
away on  May 31.  He was a long time cast member of Tony n' Tina's Wedding
and has worked as an emcee, actor, spoken word artist, visual artist etc etc
etc thoughout Vancouver and the country.  Many of you will remember him as
the Making a Scene Rapporteur a few years back.

He was a wonderful character - his pompadour and  teddy boy style were as
famous as his gift with words, and his love of an audience and his loyalty
to friends.  He was a furious activist for many things..and  I amongst many
- loved him.  He will be dearly dearly missed.

*There is a memorial tonight, Monday June 4 at *
*8:00 pm at Café Deux Soliel on Commercial Drive.  *
*Please come out if you knew him*

There may also be a more formal memorial later this week.  Information and
details TBA.

He had been "ill" for about a year.  Last June, he blogged on his MySpace blog about what he endured.  It is too bad I didn't know him better.  Each time I ran into him in public (the last time was only a few weeks ago) I wished I had said more to him.  He was one fascinating cat.  I am sure he is off making beat poetry somewhere in the universe.  A loss to the Vancouver poetry scene and a whole lot of other scenes too.

Tags: death, t paul, t paul ste. marie, thundering word heard

I haven't had the chance to play a role playing game in the last number of years (since no one I know is "into" them) - thus, I am forced to play games that have no role playing elements in them.  Am I too old?  Apparently not.  A video blog I have been checking out has been telling me about what is out there and I am getting the role playing bug.

The Serenity Role Playing Game.  How cool is that?  I am biased, of course, but I haven't seen anyone playing this game anywhere in this vast city.  I am sure there must be some Gaming Mecca around here.

Tags: serenity, firefly, rpg, role playing games

I was asked by some cool people if I wanted to try and add some swimming to a "Get Fit" plan and I agreed.  It has been some time since I have gone swimming.  I taught swimming for close to a decade back in the nineties but retired from it as my lungs became highly sensitive to the chlorine in the water. 

It was quite sudden and had no explanation other than I took a couple of weeks off.  I worked with multiple lung infections in the last six or so months of my working in the water.  I went to my G.P. after the third lung infection in four weeks and asked why this had started  happening. 

"Now you know why they make chlorine bombs."

I laughed.  My last day came and I decided not to continue as my lungs were not able to handle much any more.  In the last six months, I went through 15 lung infections.  I would go to the pool, my lungs would start hurting and I would start coughing and a day or two later, it would be a full blown infection. 

Does this make me nervous now?  Not really.  It has been almost ten years since I have set foot in a chlorinated environment, so, it should be fine.  My doctor mentioned it would take a little while (a few years, he added) to get back into where my lungs would handle the chlorine.  Back into the water I go.  I am sure my muscles will thank me for it - or hurt me.

Tags: swimming, exercise, lungs

I just read this little news bit today and was happy to see that even the Police drummer, Stewart Copeland, is blogging:

“Whenever you’re ready Mr. Copeland” says Charlie, the production manager, as two crew members hold aside the giant gong, creating just enough space for me to slither onto my percussion stage, which is still down in its pit. I leap on board but my foot catches something and I sprawl into the arena in a jumble as the little stage starts to rise into view. Never mind. The audience is screaming with anticipation as I collect myself in the dark and start to warm, up the gong with a few gentle taps. But I’m overdoing it. It’s resonating and reaching it’s crescendo before the stage has fully reached its position. Sort of like a premature ejaculation. There’s nothing for it so I take a big swing for the big hit. Problem is, I’m just fractionally too far away and the beater misses the sweet spot and the big pompous opening to the show is a damp squib. Never mind.

I stride manfully to my drums. Andy has started the opening guitar riff to MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE and the crowd is going nuts. Problem is, I missed hearing him start. Is he on the first time around or the second? I look over at Sting and he’s not much help, his cue is me – and I’m lost. Never mind. “Crack!” on the snare and I’m in, so Sting starts singing. Problem is, he heard my crack as two in the bar, but it was actually four – so we are half a bar out of sync with each other. Andy is in Idaho.

Well we are professionals so we soon get sorted, but the groove is eluding us. We crash through MESSAGE and then go strait into SYNCHRONICITY. But there is just something wrong. We just can’t get on the good foot. We shamble through the song and hit the big ending. Last night Sting did a big leap for the cut-off hit, and he makes the same move tonight, but he gets the footwork just a little bit wrong and doesn’t quite achieve lift-off. The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock. Never Mind. Next song is going to be great…

But it isn’t. We get to the end of the first verse and I snap into the chorus groove – and Sting doesn’t. He’s still in the verse. We’ll have to listen to the tapes tomorrow to see who screwed up, but we are so off kilter that Sting counts us in to begin the song again. This is ubeLIEVably lame. We are the mighty Police and we are totally at sea.

And so it goes, for song after song. All I can think about is how Dietmar is going to string us up. In rehearsal this afternoon we changed the keys of EVERY LITTLE THING and DON’T STAND SO CLOSE so needless to say Andy and Sting are now on-stage in front of twenty thousand fans playing avant-garde twelve-tone hodgepodges of both tunes. Lost, lost, lost. I also changed my part for DON’T STAND and it’s actually working quite well but there is a dissonant noise coming from my two colleagues. In WALKING/FOOTSTEPS, I worked out a cool rhythm change for the rock-a-billy guitar solo, but now I make a complete hash of it – by playing it in the wrong part of the song. It’s not sounding so cool.

It usually takes about four or five shows in a tour before you get to the disaster gig. But we’re The Police so we are a little ahead of schedule. It’s only the second show (not counting the fan gig – 4,000 people doesn’t count as a gig in the Police scale of things).
When we meet up back-stage for the first time after the set and before the encores, we fall into each other’s arms laughing hysterically. Above our heads, the crowd is making so much noise that we can’t talk. We just shake our heads ruefully and head back up the stairs to the stage. Funny thing is, we are enjoying ourselves anyway. Screw it, it’s only music. What are you gonna do? But maybe it’s time to get out of Vancouver…

He is nit-picking and I disagree with what he says but, hey, I wasn't on stage that night but merely enjoying from the comfort of the deafening room.  This was the only concert I had been to that the crowd was much louder than the band.

Tags: thepolice, stewart copeland, blogging

I went to The Police concert tonight at GM Place and had a great time. I often wondered if I really like concerts. I enjoy music and enjoy watching it performed in some kind of intimate setting like a coffee shop or pub - but huge concerts like that just are not my thing. I feel somewhat like a dork because I should be feeling like I shared something with people or with the band or something.

Ah, whatever my brain says, it doesn't take away that the performance was great. Two encores, listening to music I really like - it was worth it.

Of course, the people I went with are awesome but I felt bad that I wasn't fully immersed in the experience. It is something I will have to work on. Are there any suggestions on how to "let go" and "boogie woogie"?

Tags: thepolice, concerts